VPN Guard – Block VPN, Proxy, Bots & Anonymous Visitors vs Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning

VPN Guard is the ultimate freemium WordPress plugin to help you block VPNs, proxies, and other anonymizing networks frequently leveraged by unwanted bots and suspicious traffic in real-time — no subscription required. It uses the powerful vpnapi.io engine to scan visitors’ IP addresses and instantly block connections flagged as VPN, Proxy, Tor, or Relay—and your free account includes 1,000 API requests per day! This helps protect your site from various threats that hide behind these anonymization layers. And here’s the game-changer: YOU decide the battlefield! Want to shield your entire site? Done. Need to protect just your login page, WooCommerce checkout, specific posts, or even the entire /wp-admin/ area? VPN Guard gives you pinpoint control with its advanced targeting rules. > 💡 Premium-grade features, no premium price. Unlock serious protection with granular control, without spending a dime. ✅ Features You’ll Love ✨ NEW! Block Page Preview & Test Tab – See exactly what your blocked users see and get tips for testing your setup! 🎯 NEW! LASER-FOCUSED TARGETING! – Why block everything when you can block SMARTER? Full Site Protection: Shield your entire WordPress site with one click. Specific Areas Only: Create custom rules to protect: – Individual Post / Page ID(s) – Entire Post Types (e.g., all “products”, all “articles”, or your custom post types) – URLs based on Contains, Starts With, or Exact Match – Critical WooCommerce Pages (Cart, Checkout, My Account) – Essential WordPress Pages (Login Page, Registration Page) – The entire WordPress Admin Area (/wp-admin/) 🔍 VPN & Proxy Detection – Block anonymized traffic (VPN, Proxy, Tor, Relay) using trusted IP intelligence. Enhanced IP validation logic. 🛡️ Mitigate Unwanted Traffic – Helps reduce access from scrapers and unwanted bots that often operate through the types of anonymizing networks detected by the API. 🔐 WordPress Login Security – Harden your admin and login endpoints (now even more precise with targeting!) 🛒 WooCommerce Checkout Protection – Reduce fraud and suspicious orders by blocking high-risk anonymized connections. 🧠 Smart Role Bypasses – Let trusted roles skip blocking rules. ⏰ Scheduled Blocking – Only apply blocking rules at certain hours or days. Improved scheduler logic. 📋 View Blocked Logs – Review recent blocked IPs, URLs, and detection reasons. User Agent and Referer now included in CSV export. 📤 Export to CSV – One-click export for audit logs or compliance. Log export functionality restored and improved. ✅ IP Whitelist – Allow specific IPs even if flagged by the detection service. – 🛡️ Admin Panel Status Notice – Optional notice in your dashboard, with refined styling and more robust status display. 🧠 Ideal For Bloggers looking to protect login and admin access with precision. WooCommerce stores wanting to secure checkout or specific product categories from risky traffic. Membership sites and online courses needing to protect premium content areas. Publishers battling fake traffic or content scrapers on high-value articles or sections. Any WordPress site that needs smarter, targeted access control against anonymized and potentially malicious traffic. 🚀 Why Choose VPN Guard? While other security or VPN-blocking plugins lock core features or charge extra for flexibility, VPN Guard gives you true freemium access with unparalleled control: ✅ 100% free with generous API usage for detecting VPNs, Proxies, Tor, and Relays. 🎯 Powerful targeting rules at no extra cost! 🔓 Key features without nagging upsells. 📈 Designed for performance, speed, and SEO safety. Enhanced stability and security in the latest update. > 💥 Use it standalone or alongside other security tools like Wordfence, iThemes Security, All In One WP Security, and more! VPN Guard’s targeting complements them perfectly. 🔌 Integrations & Compatibility ✅ Fully compatible with WooCommerce (target cart, checkout, account pages) ✅ Works with popular caching plugins ✅ Integrates with any WordPress theme or builder ✅ Safe for use with CDNs and Cloudflare 📦 API Details VPN Guard uses vpnapi.io — a modern and reliable IP intelligence service. The API response includes flags for: – VPN: Is the IP a VPN? – Proxy: Is the IP a Proxy? – Tor: Is the IP a Tor exit node? – Relay: Is the IP part of a relay network? (The API may also provide a “hosting” flag indicating a datacenter/hosting IP, which contributes to identifying non-residential traffic, though VPN Guard’s primary blocking is based on the above explicit flags). 🆓 Free plan includes 1,000 requests per day 🚀 Easy upgrade options available (no commitment) 🔐 GDPR compliant, fast response times, and global coverage You’ll be prompted to add your free API key inside the plugin settings. 💬 Support Got questions or feature requests? Reach out from the plugin’s built-in feedback form or at https://vpndeals.com/wordpress-plugins/vpn-guard/ External Services This plugin utilizes the vpnapi.io service to perform real-time IP address analysis. This is essential for the plugin’s core functionality of detecting and blocking traffic from VPNs, proxies, Tor networks, and relays. Service Provider: vpnapi.io Purpose: To identify the nature of a visitor’s IP address (VPN, proxy, Tor, relay) to enable blocking or restriction based on your plugin settings, thereby enhancing website security and integrity. Data Sent: When a visitor accesses a page or area of your site that is actively protected by VPN Guard (and the result for their IP is not already cached locally or if the IP is not whitelisted), the visitor’s IP address is sent to the vpnapi.io service for analysis. Service Terms of Use: https://vpnapi.io/terms Service Privacy Policy: https://vpnapi.io/privacy Privacy Considerations VPN Guard is designed with user and site visitor privacy in mind. Here’s how we handle data: Visitor IP Addresses: To protect your site, VPN Guard processes the IP addresses of your site visitors. As detailed in the “External Services” section, visitor IP addresses may be sent to the vpnapi.io service for analysis. Data Logging: If a visitor’s IP address is blocked, VPN Guard will store the following information in your local WordPress database: the visitor’s IP address, the date and time of the block, the detection reason (e.g., “VPN”), the URL the visitor attempted to access, their browser user agent, and the HTTP referer. This data is for your security logging and review purposes. You have an option in the plugin settings to delete all plugin data, including these logs, upon uninstallation. Cookies: VPN Guard’s core IP blocking functionality does not set any cookies on your website visitors’ browsers. Site Administrator Data (Feedback Form): If you choose to send feedback to us via the plugin’s built-in feedback form, it will include your WordPress admin email, site URL, and technical details (plugin version, WP version, PHP version) to help us provide support. This is explicitly stated on the feedback form itself. * Your Website’s Privacy Policy: We recommend that you update your website’s privacy policy to inform your users about the data processing activities performed by VPN Guard, including the use of the vpnapi.io service and the local logging of blocked IP addresses.

Most security plugins hand you a dashboard full of alerts and expect you to know what to do next. Shield works differently. It blocks threats automatically, repairs what it can on its own, and then shows you exactly what still needs your attention — ranked by impact, not volume. Less noise. More action. 🤖 Security That Runs Itself The most powerful thing Shield does is what it handles without you: Automatic IP Blocking — every visitor is quietly scored as they interact with your site. Failed logins, firewall blocks, silentCAPTCHA failures, and other signals accumulate into a reputation score. When a visitor’s score crosses the threshold, Shield blocks them — automatically, without you lifting a finger Automatic File Repair — when a file integrity scan finds a changed WordPress core file, Shield pulls the original from WordPress.org and restores it. Detected and fixed, without waiting for you to act Automatic Bot Recognition — Shield identifies legitimate crawlers (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Apple) and known services (ManageWP, Pingdom, Stripe, CloudFlare) and never blocks them. Your SEO and monitoring tools keep working 🧭 Guided Security, Not Just a Dashboard Shield organises your security into four focused areas so you always know where to look: Queue — things that need your attention, ranked by priority. Not everything at once — just what matters right now Investigate — dig into blocked IPs, security events, and the specific signals that triggered each one Configure — guided setup for each protection area, with clear recommendations matched to your site Reports — a clear view of what Shield has blocked, detected, and repaired over time The goal: guide you quickly towards action, not bury you in data. 🛡️ Free Protection Bot Blocking & Firewall silentCAPTCHA — blocks bad bots on login, registration, lost password, and comment forms using passive signals invisible to real visitors. No CAPTCHA keys. No external requests. No JavaScript that breaks your forms. Everything runs on your server (GDPR friendly). Firewall rules blocking common WordPress attack patterns — SQL injection probes, known exploit signatures, suspicious request parameters XML-RPC protection — disable or restrict entirely, including pingbacks and trackbacks REST API firewall — block unauthenticated requests Fake crawler detection — identifies bots spoofing legitimate search engines Login & Account Security Two-factor authentication (2FA) — email codes, Google Authenticator, or YubiKey OTP for all users Brute force protection with configurable login attempt limits and cooldown Session locking — tie sessions to a browser or IP to stop account theft after a successful login User enumeration blocking — closes off ?author= probes used to harvest usernames before an attack Scanning & Integrity Core file scanning — compares WordPress core against official checksums and repairs changed files automatically Suspicious PHP detection — flags PHP files in locations where they have no business being Abandoned plugin detection — identifies unmaintained plugins most likely to carry unpatched vulnerabilities Visibility & Control Security Admin PIN — lock Shield’s own settings so other administrators cannot quietly weaken your configuration Security activity log — logins, user changes, plugin and theme events, post edits, and suspicious requests: Everything in one clear view IP Rules — automatic & manual block and bypass rules, CIDR range support, full per-IP request history 🤝 CrowdSec Integration Shield is the only WordPress security plugin with a native CrowdSec integration. CrowdSec aggregates threat signals from millions of sites into a shared IP reputation network — your site blocks known attackers before they ever probe you, using intelligence far beyond your own traffic history. ✨ ShieldPRO Passkeys — phishing-resistant, passwordless login for users Backup login codes — emergency 2FA access when a device is lost AI-based malware scanner — detects known and unknown PHP malware Plugin & theme file scanning — compares installed files against WordPress.org originals, flagging unauthorised changes Vulnerability scanning — active checks across all installed plugins and themes Broader spam protection — WooCommerce, EDD, Contact Form 7, Ninja Forms, Elementor, and more Traffic rate limiting — cap request rates per IP to absorb high-volume bot floods User suspension — manual or automatic suspension of idle accounts MainWP integration White Label — rename and rebrand Shield for client sites Who It’s For Shield suits site owners, agencies, and MSPs who want protection that runs itself — not a plugin that demands constant attention to be useful. If you have been burned by security plugins that generate more noise than protection, or dashboards that tell you everything is wrong without telling you what to fix, Shield was built to be the alternative.